Leofwine_draca I'm a big fan of South Korean cinema, particularly their action thrillers, their horror films, and the art-house movies of Kim Ki-Duk, a guy who's quickly becoming one of my favourite directors. Unfortunately THE DAY HE ARRIVES is a low budget, black-and-white, arty production shot on the streets of Seoul with very little story to propel it along.The narrative seems to involve a down-on-his-luck former director who revisits some of his old friends in the city during a long weekend. Many of the events that transpire are repetitive, with lots of piano playing, drunkenness, and visits to various restaurants and bars, but there's not really much point to this and zero explanation. There's no discernible beginning, middle or end, either. It feels like the work of a first-time director just finding his feet and asking the viewer to endure with him.THE DAY HE ARRIVES contains lots of endless ad-libbed scenes with static camera-work. The performances are the only good thing about this; the rest of it is a bore. I was thinking this might be some GROUNDHOG DAY time loop style movie but it's far more subtle and obtuse than that, and by the time it finishes the only thing you can do is scratch your head and move on to the next movie.

kev-818-274139 OK, so I get that this is a foreign film, and I get that I'm supposed to be super-sensitive to cultural differences. But, and a huge BUT here, I was bored beyond tears with this one.I'm regretfully placed in an awkward position to witness the characters stutter their way through their seemingly contrived scripts, from the tedious profile angles that the director seems to prefer. I was witness to over the top and quite frankly, ridiculous responses to otherwise benign dialogue contrivances.I really, really tried to give this flick a chance, but I just couldn't get into it. I'm no stranger to foreign films, and watch and enjoy a number of them. This one, however, bored the living fecal matter out of me.

treywillwest This genuinely weird Korean film seemed like a fusion of "Groundhog Day" and "No Exit" but in a style that married Eric Rohmer and Woody Allen. I don't really know if I liked it or not and kind of admire it for that. A Korean film-maker, who has forsaken the art world for a simple life as a rural school-teacher, returns to Seoul to reunite with friends. The first night is an enthralling experience of great, drunken conversation on the nature of chance and identity, with much drunken lust thrown in. Each following day becomes a less satisfying copy of the first. Time has stopped, and only the director seems (semi) conscious of it. I would interpret this work as a kind of confession. The director's development has been entrapped by his vanity even as he strives for a life of modesty. Whatever else, it captures Seoul, and drunken satisfaction- be it intellectual or amorous- very nicely.

eraserdead The Day He Arrives is a very interesting look at relationships and the emotional barriers that are put up by both men and women. I'm a big fan of directors who use long takes in scenes and it's really strange here because almost every scene is done in one take even though there's a barrel load of dialogue in each of them – it must have been very hard for the actors but that just brings out the superb performances from each of the cast. Throughout the film we see the same sets and the same supporting characters over and over again – some not related to the plot at all – but unlike most filmmakers the repetition is explained through dialogue and story which makes this quite unique. It's also interesting to take note of the voice over which chimes in every time the main character receives a text message, further delving into the main character's mind – something which you don't normally see in any film with any of it's characters. Another great technique used by the director is the zooms – they happen halfway through takes and they never really focus on anything except the characters, we rarely get a shot of one character on their own and I don't think there's a single close up in the film. Regardless of that we still feel the characters' emotions as we would in any other film and in that respect the director is doing something very special with these techniques. I look forward to seeing more of the directors work. http://destroyallcinema.wordpress.com/